What were your favorite books as a child? Why?

As a young child, my favorite books were the Betsy-Tacy books by Maude Hart Lovelace. My mother read those novels to me before I could read, and I know those books were the start of my love affair with the novel form. I vividly remember imagining those characters’ lives, and wishing I could live the story with them. I wanted my own best friends, my own Big Hill where we could meet for picnics. Mostly I wanted a life of great adventures like Betsy, Tacy and Tib lived.

What was your inspiration for the story about Reenie Kelly and Mr. Marsworth?

Well, here we’re visiting another childhood literary influence. I think my real inspiration for Until Tomorrow, Mr. Marsworth came from a book I read in fourth grade called Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster. It was an epistolary novel written in 1912 for “college girls,” and while I was a good eight years from college, and a long way from 1912, I was a great fan of the form. So my dream to write an epistolary novel was formed young.

Describe some of the challenges of writing an epistolary novel for children.

The challenge with the novel, regardless of audience, is the need to show rather than tell, and the primary device for showing is the scene. The scene is really a method of narrative execution, and I had to have a narrator—Reenie Kelly—for whom that method would read naturally. Beyond that, there was the literal passage of time because life continued while letters were waiting to be written and answered. 

Also, in the letter, there is as much unsaid as said, and it’s that withholding of information that gives the letter its power. You have to trust the reader to read between the lines, and I did. I have great faith in young people’s ability to read between the lines.

Gardner Hill in Wayzata, Minnesota

Is Lake Liberty a real town in Minnesota? Is there a real town that inspired the setting?

Lake Liberty is an imagined town, but it was inspired by the “old town” section of Wayzata back in the 1960’s. This was the place where my father was born and raised, and my O’Connor relatives all lived. Like Reenie Kelly’s grandmother, my grandmother had a little house at the top of Gardner Hill, a house with an attic bedroom where her three boys once slept. It was just beneath the Wayzata water tower, with an overgrown woods that later became part of a freeway, and in the years before that freeway, I spent many happy days playing on that land, and in that neighborhood. When I picture Lake Liberty, I picture the Wayzata of my childhood—the movie theater, the A & W, the small cottages on the lake. I was an outsider to that town, just as Reenie Kelly is an outsider to Lake Liberty, and I was keenly aware of how deep the ties ran for long-time residents.

Your story is enriched by an interesting cast of secondary characters. Who is your favorite and why?

Oh, you know that question is too hard for a writer to answer! I truly loved them all, even the less lovable characters like Gram. I hope that each character is a fully realized human being with desires and flaws, because that’s what I want to see in my work. I love Billy for his gentleness and humility, and I love Dare for his ragged edges and his bravado. I love Skip for the friendship he extends to Reenie Kelly, and how carefully he navigates the letters that he sends from Vietnam. I love Sno-Cone for her intelligence, and her ability to expand Reenie’s world. And of course, I love Mr. H.W. Marsworth for his great patience, and his quiet courage, and his unending kindness. I love that he is willing to be changed by Reenie, and that he allows a child to teach him lessons he still needs to learn.

If you didn’t write books and teach creative writing, what would you do for a living?

My first love is children, and I think if I hadn’t been able to teach writing to adults and children, I would have worked with children in another capacity, perhaps as a child psychologist or sociologist who specialized in the lives of the children. Both of those were interests when I began college, but they were put aside for writing.

If you were an animal, which animal would you want to be?

In terms of temperament, I’m probably most like a dog. I’m happy to be a loyal companion, to sleep between walks, to enjoy the world on a sensory level. We have an adored family dog named Rollo, a Brittany Spaniel mutt, and I wouldn’t mind living his existence. Maybe in my next lifetime, I can sleep next to my owner while she writes.

Sheila O’Connor, author and educator

Biography

Sheila O’Connor is the critically acclaimed author of Sparrow Road, winner of the International Reading Award, and Keeping Safe the Stars, as well as the adult novels Tokens of Grace and Where No Gods Came, winner of the Michigan Prize for Literary Fiction and the Minnesota Book Award. A writer of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction for audiences of all ages, Sheila is a professor in the MFA program at Hamline University, where she also serves as the fiction editor for Water~Stone Review. You can visit Sheila at sheilaoconnor.com.

Hunter believed that the foremost job of teachers was decision making, and that each teacher makes thousands of decisions each day.

All the decisions a teacher makes can be put into one of three categories: (1) content category—what you are going to teach; (2) teaching behavior category—what you as a teacher will do to facilitate and execute that learning; and (3) learning behavior category—how the students are going to learn and how they will let you know that they’ve learned it.

Following my author visit to Scandia Elementary School on March 28, 2018, third grade teacher Kelly Duncan asked her students to write “reflection papers” about my visit.

Their first-draft reflections provided the teacher with valuable information about how well her students can articulate a shared experience visually and in writing. The papers provided me with valuable information that I can use to plan effective classroom presentations in the future; a continuous cycle of teaching and learning.

I would have liked to have displayed copies of every child’s reflection in this blog post; each was unique and special in its own way. The three I chose nicely illustrate how the students put their hearts and minds into what they saw and heard during my presentation.

Other favorite observations written by these delightful third graders were:

• She told us about how to write a book, and make sock monkeys. I think I’m going to do that when I get home.
• She carries a journal everywhere she goes.
• She gets her character ideas from her life.
• We saw all her artifacts.
• She said to use your imagination.
• She showed us it’s pretty much like putting together a jigsaw puzzle to make a book.
• I asked her a question about why the judge (Annaliese’s father) is mean.
• She talked about how she came up with ideas. She writes whatever comes to her mind, which I like that.
• My favorite part is when Annaliese makes a costume for Great-Grandmama’s 90^th
• She is a grandmother. She was fun!
• The book is great so far. I wonder what the end will be like.

*PS: Spring has finally arrived in Minnesota! Purple crocuses are pushing through the last layers of snow. A wild turkey spent the morning wandering about our backyard. The little girls from next door rode their pastel pedal bikes with sparkly streamers for the first time. Baby birds and rabbit kittens will be here soon. Enjoy!

American Swedish Institute [Wikimedia Commons, by Runner1928, CC BY-SA 4.0]

I used my impressions of the ballroom at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to create the description for the grand birthday party held in Eastcliff’s ballroom.

Ralph and I have been members of the American Swedish Institute for many years. I have Swedish ancestry so I’ve enjoyed exploring the period rooms, furniture, and the changing art exhibits. (They serve inspiring food in their restaurant, too!)

Also known as the Turnblad Mansion or “Castle,” it was built by Swan Turnblad, who published Svenska Amerikanska Posten, the Swedish language newspaper with the highest circulation in the United States. The Turnblad family donated their French chateau-style mansion to the American Institute for Swedish Art, Literature, and Science. They built their home on six city lots!

When you’re in the Twin Cities, plan a half-day trip to the American Swedish Institute. It’s a visit you’ll always remember.